


Zero Sum Game

by sevenofspade



Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds, Secret Wars (Hickman/Ribić 2015 mini-series)
Genre: Gen, Secret Wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 06:10:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5446091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/pseuds/sevenofspade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not the Sheriff who finds the ship, it's the Foundation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zero Sum Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nomad (nomadicwriter)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomadicwriter/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy reading this! I enjoyed writing it.

When Valeria had come into the throneroom -- with Franklin practically pushing her -- to tell him she'd found something, this was not what Doom had expected.

It was a ship.

A ship from the universe before this one, from the Earth Doom, Stephen and Reece came from.

"Will it open?" Doom asked.

"Yes," Valeria said. "It hasn't yet, but we can force it."

"We thought we'd wait until you were here to do it," Franklin said, with extra emphasis on the 'we's. He seemed to think Doom was still in doubt that this was not Valeria's idea; Doom would have to talk to both of them, later.

"Do it," Doom said.

Franklin nodded. He spread his fingers, then made a fist and the ship's door crumpled like paper.

The ship's inhabitants did not surprise Doom overly much. There were a handful of heroes he did not recognise and a handful of heroes he did, a handful of villains, too, and, of course, Richards.

Doom took a deep breath. Neither Stephen nor Susan were here.

"Victor," Richards said.

"We need to talk," Doom said. "About what you've done."

Richards' mouth twisted. No doubt he'd been about likewise twist the situation to make Doom the villain and tell him the same thing.

"The rest of you," Doom said, "can talk to Stephen." He reached out with his power to call Stephen to his side; he did not forcefully teleport Stephen, merely indicated that his presence was required by the God-Emperor.

Stephen arrived. He took one look at the ship and said, "Ah."

"Yes," Doom said. "Ah."

He and Stephen would talk later, but for now it was best to let the Illuminati explain the situation to each other.

Doom wrapped his power around Richards and both the children. He did not entirely trust Franklin to control himself when he learned, but he owed this explanation to Valeria. She had been investigating the nature of Battleworld for years now and her mind was as great and terrible as his own.

Richards was simply the talking point.

The throneroom was empty. Good. It meant there were no onlookers for Doom to displace.

"Father," Franklin asked, "what's happening?"

Richards opened his mouth to answer, but Doom pre-empted him. "Patience, Franklin."

"Victor, what have you done?" Richards said.

"What you could not," Doom replied. "I saved the world that you let die. All the worlds that you let die and as much of each as I could."

"What," Valeria said. It was completely and utterly flat, every emotion set aside for later, when the scientist would be done with her experiments.

"There were worlds before this one, a great many of them, all over the multiverse," Doom said. "Tell me, Richards. Did it ever occur to you that I could help, that if you had only asked before it was too late, everything could have been saved?"

"Don't put this on me!" Richards shouted. He restrained himself visibly when he remembered the children's presence.

"Who else should I put this on?" Doom asked. "Your Illuminati could not save the world and neither could you."

"So you saved it."

"Yes." _I did what you could not_ , Doom thought, _much like I did at Valeria's birth_. He did not voice the thought, however; Richards would know his meaning either way and if the words remained unsaid it made Doom the better man.

"Was it worth it?"

Doom tilted his head to the side. Had Richards lost his mind?

"This world in which they," Richards gestured at Franklin and Valeria as he continued, "think you're their father, was it worth it?"

"Don't be silly, mister," Franklin said. "We know Dad's not our father."

Valeria stepped up. "What Franklin means is that we are aware we share no biological link with Doom."

"Right," Richards said.

"That does not make him our father any less," Valeria continued. "He raised us better than anyone else could have."

Richards staggered, as though under a blow. Doom did not feel too secure of his footing himself.

"What Val said." Franklin touched down upon the floor; it had been a long time since he'd done so.

"Are you going to tell them the truth?" Richards asked.

"Are _you_?"

"What truth?" Valeria's frustration could be seen in the set of her jaw -- or would be, if Doom turned to look at her. She continued, "And don't think I've forgotten about this 'worlds' affair."

"I'm your father," Richards told her.

She looked at Doom for confirmation. He nodded. Richards' surprise at this had no place to be.

Valeria breathed out slowly. "I'm going need a little explanation, here."

Franklin reached an arm around his sister and pulled her closer; Valeria would have refused a hug, but this closeness she allowed.

"What do you know?" Richards asked.

Franklin looked at Valeria. She took her decision, set her jaw and stepped forward, out of his reach.

"I know this world is not the first and you were not always God. I know whatever it is you were before you were God, the Sheriff was as well -- his power is completely independent from yours, but the," she snapped her fingers, looking for the word. "The elemental particles are the same. Whatever it is that gives you your power, it's at least partly constrained to Doomstadt -- even on the rare occasions you leave Castle Doom, it retains the highest concentration of God particles." She jutted out her chin. "How am I doing so far?"

"Very well," Doom said. He had not known Valeria's research was this advanced. Omnipotence, not omniscience, like Stephen liked to remind him.

Valeria's pride shone through her careful neutral expression.

"Tell her the rest of the story," Richards said.

"I was not there at the beginning," Doom said. "This is the kind of story that benefits from being told from the start, but if you wish _I_ will tell it."

Richards launched into the story then, as though he feared Doom would distort it, as though he would not distort it himself. Richards told the whole story from the beginning, Illuminati, incursions and all. Doom's part in it was not flattering, but it was true.

Franklin was the first to speak once Richards was done. "You let the worlds die? You let everyone die!"

"Franklin," Valeria said. "It's not that simple."

"No!" Franklin's hands were balled into fists and Doom had to pull the fabric of reality a little tighter together to stop it from fraying. "No! It is that simple. People died and it's your fault."

"Yes," Doom said. "I am aware and I am sorry. I did the best I could."

"I wasn't talking to _you_ ," Franklin snapped.

Doom's temper flared and far out on the edges of Battleworld entire strips of land unraveled into inexistence. Doom breathed in deep; the taste of metal coated the back of his throat. He remade what he could of what had been lost.

Valeria was looking at him with concern, no doubt taking her clue from Franklin. Franklin must have felt the shift in the structure of Battleworld. Richards, for his part, was staring at Franklin.

Doom relaxed his shoulders.

The children's stance loosened in response. Over the years, they'd grown accostumed to reading his feelings not on his face but in minute changes in his body language. This one had been deliberate, but he suspected he gave more away to them -- Valeria, at least, if not Franklin -- than he sometimes intended to.

"I didn't do it in purpose," Richards said. He sounded young, and broken, nothing like the man Doom remembered.

"Do you think it matters to those who died?" Valeria asked and Franklin nodded vehemently besides her.

Valeria lending Franklin her support after all caused Richards to crumple and fall to his knees on the floor. The children looked at him with some sort of unholy glee at being right.

The inside of Doom's chest felt hollow. This was the man he resented for so long, a man who could brought this low by children, even these children?

"Valeria. Franklin. You're being unkind." Victor held out his hand to pull Reed to his feet.


End file.
